2 Quick Questions About Nikon F 100

[Ricardo41]

Ok, I just got my F 100. Two quick questions: Some years ago I owned an N80. I remember that I was able to enable a "grid" in the screen for help in composing pictures. Does the F 100 have that option? I can't seem to find it in the handbook.

Second question: does the F 100 have any "idiosyncracies" I should be aware of?

thanks for the assistance.
ricardo

 

[PhotoJim]

1. You have to buy and install the E screen. They cost around forty bucks. They are a very worthwhile purchase. The F80/N80 is the only 35mm camera I know of that has the grid built in and switchable.

2. Not really. It handles a lot better with big lenses if you use the MB-15 grip, and it is a lot friendlier on batteries. (6 AAs in the MB-15 last almost three times as long as four AAs in the camera do.) If you bought a used camera, the very oldest ones had a really lousy rewind fork that Nikon replaced under warranty. If you google you can probably find pictures of the forks to determine which one you have.

The F100 is a great camera. I really enjoy mine.

 

[Ricardo41]

Jim:

thanks for the quick reply. I have a newer model, no cheap rewind fork on it.

I take it the grid screen that can be bought extra is user installable?

ricardo

 

[John McCallum]

Echo Jim's thoughts - congrats, they are a great camera. I really enjoy mine.

Not really an idiosyncrasy, but you'll need a film pciker if you wish to change films before finishing. The lack of a mirror lockup can be annoying.

But apart from a couple of minor differences, you've effectively got a F5 for half the price.

 

[Ricardo41]

Not wanting to flog a dead horse: but why, as I've just discovered, did Nikon decide to have a proprietary remote cable release system? What happened to the good old fashioned system of threads in the shutter release button?

The proprietary remote cord costs $60 and is, on top of that, sold out everywhere....

ricardo

 

[John Koehrer]

Not wanting to flog a dead horse: but why, as I've just discovered, did Nikon decide to have a proprietary remote cable release system? What happened to the good old fashioned system of threads in the shutter release button?

The proprietary remote cord costs $60 and is, on top of that, sold out everywhere....

ricardo

It's called ADP(additional dealer profit)

 

[tony lockerbie]

You will really like your F100. I very quickly bought the MB15 grip and totally agree with above about battery life, makes it handle much better as well, especially in the vertical.

You can customize a lot of functions and one of those is leaving the film leader out after rewinding. You should have the instruction manual as you will need it to work out all those custom bits!

 

[FrankB]

Not wanting to flog a dead horse: but why, as I've just discovered, did Nikon decide to have a proprietary remote cable release system? What happened to the good old fashioned system of threads in the shutter release button?

The proprietary remote cord costs $60 and is, on top of that, sold out everywhere....

Another reason why I went for the F80 instead...

 

[Nick Zentena]

How complicated is the cable? Some of the mini cables are fairly simple to make with a few parts from somebody like Radio shack or similar. I built one for an old Ricoh with just a plug, a switch and a little wire.

 

[Nick Zentena]

http://www.schneordesign.com/Avi/F100/diy_04.htm

Is that right a DB-15?

 

[Russ - SVP]

Not wanting to flog a dead horse: but why, as I've just discovered, did Nikon decide to have a proprietary remote cable release system? What happened to the good old fashioned system of threads in the shutter release button?

The proprietary remote cord costs $60 and is, on top of that, sold out everywhere....

ricardo

Ricardo

You can get a generic cord, for under $10.00 (new) on E-bay. They work very well. And for that price, get two of them.

Kiron Kid

 

[Ricardo41]

Ricardo
You can get a generic cord, for under $10.00 (new) on E-bay. They work very well. And for that price, get two of them.

Kiron Kid

Thanks for the tip. I was able to pick a Nikon cord up on ebay for a reasonable price.

ricardo

 

[PhotoJim]

Another reason why I went for the F80 instead...

Ahh, but the F80 won't meter with manual-focus lenses... a bigger sin to me.

 

[PhotoJim]

I take it the grid screen that can be bought extra is user installable?

Absolutely. It takes about five minutes. I've put E screens in three Nikon bodies without any casualties.

 

[Chan Tran]

Yes a DB-15 but the guy would have to have another cable with a DB-15 female at one end and a Nikon 10 pin connector at the other. The difficult part is to find the Nikon 10 pin connector. I don't know of any source that has this connector. Many third party cables has a 10 pin connector that fit into the Nikon socket but without the threaded locking collar. I think the guy in your link wanted to keep using the MC-12A on older Nikon with 2 pin connector. That is why he has the DB-15 in between.

 

[tony lockerbie]

Just a correction about the custom function of the F100. You can't make it leave the film leader out- I was thinking of the F4. Sorry about the confusion!

 

[John McCallum]

Thanks Tony. Film pickers are light, cheap and just a little bit of a pain anyway.

 

[Chan Tran]

The power film leader extractor that most labs have, works very well and painless and sometimes sells for very cheap on ebay.

 

[ann]

where did you find a remote control device for 10 dollars on ebay. would like to find one of those myself

 

[mawz]

Nikon can set your body to leave the leader out, but it's not selectable via a custom function unfortunately.

As to the 10pin cables, that socket is also capable of datalink on the F90x, F100 and F5. And the cables allow meter activation and AF on a half-press without worrying about tripping the shutter. The socket is common to all of the pro and semi-pro AF bodies from the F90 on (not sure if the F4 has one, I think it does) and there's an adaptor to mate to the earlier electronic release for the MD-4 and MD11/12/15. It is more flexible than a plain cable release (which is why plain cable release